In Microsoft 365, SharePoint is at the centerstage of document-centric collaboration. And SharePoint content types are essential tools for managing content at scale. Content types can be used to enforce standards for custom metadata, document lifecycle, templates and more.

That’s why we’re excited to announce the ability to add document templates to SharePoint document library content types. We’re also adding the ability to edit the New menu - to add, hide or reorder the new file options.

In a modern library, you can add a template directly to your document library via the New menu drop down.

Document template editing

With this new capability, you can also maintain the default Word Excel, PowerPoint etc. templates along with any newly added templates and content types.

You can also choose which templates are shown in the library by easily configuring the New menu in a modern panel.

You can configure the New menu by selecting (or deselecting) which templates you wish to see and by using drag and drop to re-order the templates in the menu. Within this pane you can edit the template directly in the Office client, change the template's content type or delete the template.

Editing the "New" menu

This experience fully integrates with existing templates created via content types and supports any existing ‘New’ menu configurations. This gives you the freedom to adjust the template for single library without overwriting any other library’s templates from the same content type.

You can also easily change the content type of the template at any time, as shown below.

Mapping templates to content types

We will start the roll out of this capability to our Targeted Release customers in early September 2018. Thank you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: I've always been able to manage the display of content types in library settings. how does this new capability work with that?

Answer: The new template controls for editing the New button on the command bar provide an additional measure of control for new templates loaded on top of the existing content types. In the future, we will integrate the library settings functionality directly into the modern configuration experience for unified management.

Question: If I have a centrally defined content type in the content type hub, and I change the templates there, will they be automatically extended to any libraries where local use template has been loaded?

Answer: For the moment, the content type hub will not update any locally defined templates linked to that content type. However, we will soon introduce the ability for a centrally managed content type, along with its custom metadata rules and templates, to be published to all locations, including locally defined templates, with full reporting visibility.

Question: What happens if I change the default content type in a library? Will the new templates still point to the original content type?

Answer: The new templates are always mapped to the default content type. If you change the content type, the templates will follow.

Question: What happens if I delete the default content type in a library?

Answer: Nothing changes from prior behaviors. You cannot delete any content types that are still in use. Every library requires at least one content type, so any preexisting templates would be mapped onto the new default.

Question: These features look great for a single library, but how can I distribute templates to multiple libraries throughout a wide-ranging information architecture?

Answer: Again, for the time being, these features are scoped to a single document library. In the future, we will expand these capabilities to allow you to distribute and publish content types, with associated templates and metadata definitions, to multiple site collections and libraries in a single transaction.

From reading the FAQ, quite a lot needs to be unbundled into the ‘now’, ‘soon’ and ‘in the future’ timelines. Hopefully this will be clarified at Ignite. In any case ‘modern’ and ‘classic’ co-existence is ongoing for the foreseeable future.

Great start for this new feature. I agree with John Wynne where the clarification of what’s available now, soon, not so soon explained at MS Ignite and due to to these types of enhanced feature sets still being developed, classic and modern will definitely co-exist for the foreseeable future

Great! Thanks @Chris McNulty, just the feature we've been waiting for, it will make it easier for content owners to manage their templates. Just one question and a nice feature for us... Can we have more than 1 template per content type?

Our company's employees is used to working with the desktop versions of Office 365, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. We do however use Sharepoint to store all our files. If I create a set of templates through the Sharepoint Document library for our company, will these show up / be available through the Office 365 desktop applications?

Thank you for the update. However, I noticed that this update has eliminated the drop-down function of the 'New' button on SharePoint lists with pre-existing content types. I can confirm that the drop-down button was working fine yesterday morning, EST. However, sometime yesterday afternoon, this drop-down button stopped working. I opened a support ticket with Microsoft (#11396733). Please advise.

Thanks for the reply @Miceile Barrett, much appreciated. I tested a word document again this morning and it's content type is set to Document.

I can't now edit it from within the 'Edit New menu' dialog (I could yesterday) - it doesn't load. If I open the document from within the library (its name has changed to 'DOCX File1.docx' then I can edit it.

I've long waited for this feature (ability to set multiple templates to the same content type in the same library).

The only thing that is missing is the ability to specify the template url instead of uploading the template and keeping a copy in the Forms folder.

It would be the same as with content type template were it is allowed to put the Url. Normally I create a library accessible to everyone in the business where I place all templates to make it easy to manage (I have also integrate the location of this library in Office personalized templates so they can use these templates). This make templates accessible from everywhere and easy to manage.

This new functionality is great, however modern SharePoint lists with multiple content types are broken now. There's no way to add a new item with a different content type other than a default one. The choice of a content type moved to the new item page, but selecting a content type from the drop down does not change the page to reflect new or missing fields in the content type! This very serious and our customers can't use modern lists for adding items. The same is true for edit forms when editing all fields. See below screenshot when adding a new item and selecting the content type with 6 fields - the form still contains only 1 field from the default content type:

@Chris McNultywhat determines if a new feature is rolled out through the Targeted Release program? Where can we find a complete an accurate listing of the features that are actually part of this program?

I would like to be able to communicate with the users who are in a tenants Targeted Release group, but it hard to ask them what they think about a new feature when I'm not even sure which features are in the TR program .

My users were thrilled to see this feature in our tenant, but unfortunately, the newly added templates (and edited 'new' menu) on the Document Library are not available when the library is added to a SharePoint page via the Document Library web part. I have re-created in two different tenants. Is anyone else seeing this behavior? Hopefully a fix will be coming soon?

Hi @Miceile Barrett, I am experiencing the same thing as raised by Ben Murphy (above) on 12-09-2018 at 1:07pm and 13-09-2018 at 8.33am and a couple of other users. I'm trying to include this feature in a course. Are there any updates on this?

This feature is long awaited, however it is VERY unpredictable. We are rolling out Office 365 for a Client currently and I just never know "when the templates decides to appear" when I press the new file option. Perhaps 3 in 10 trys when I do new file the templates I uploaded appears, the other 7 times only the meny which I started with appears - this is very frustrating. Also where are the templates actually stored? Anybody with @microsoft that can tell us why this is happening?

So In addition to the new option to use New > Add Template. I also see there is a Upload > Template. I cant find any information about this feature anywhere and I'm confident it hasn't been there long. But it is broken when uploading normal office files or an actual PowerPoint Template (POTX) file I created. The files still upload but I get an error message every time. I'm not sure why there is a template option for the Upload and for the new menu. Seems hyper confusing.

Separate Issue - The users we have in Korea specifically have a different UI than any other of our global users. I requested the client to open a ticket with MS but I'll post it here as well in case anyone else is seeing it. There are a few things wrong here so hold on.

1) This is the "Members" view (Why can members see the edit options here? This seems totally wrong)

2) This is the Members view for multiple users in Korea (Link option is just missing for them, again can see the edit options inappropriately)

Hi @Chris McNulty, has anybody ever considered that the items created by using the Link template/content type, do NOT open on iOS? The link creates a .url files which are not supported on iOS devices, it just shows [InternetShortcut] URL=xxxx . Opening it in the SharePoint App seems to work but not all the time. Could someone clarify what is the expected behavior for .url files originating in SharePoint on iOS?

Being new to Sharepoint and hoping to implement the system as a springboard to change the way people work with each other in my office, I'm really disappointed that the functionality of templates is so limited. One of my major arguments for adopting Sharepoint and the way I want to get people comfortable with the idea is the documentary repository aspect. I know, not dreaming big, but it's a way to get a foot in the door and hopefully expand things from there.

Does my colleague need that reimbursement template form I emailed to them 6 months ago? Forget searching through thousands of emails, just click the Sharepoint link - ideally, that and many other useful documents will be at their fingertips. While I'm happy that more of an effort is being made to incorporate templates, it just isn't very user friendly for the average computer user. But perhaps I misunderstand the point of the functionality, and it's not so much being able pull up a form as much as it is choosing what letterhead you need.

In light of that, I do hope that you all consider the ability to have template files located as documents within libraries. And rather than creating a new document located in the library, it would ideally give the administrator an option to limit saving to a user's personal One Drive account. Again, as I am new to Sharepoint, perhaps I am overlooking or do not know of another solution that exists. On the other hand, if Sharepoint is being touted as an Intranet, it seems pretty basic to be able to store template files for different HR forms and other documents that won't necessarily involve collaboration. (Templates are big for me, one of my primary pet peeves is when people overwrite an original document that's meant to be filled in each time it's used, ha.)

I totally agree with the above and have been struggling with this for the past year. But recently I discovered that Microsoft added the possibility of adding templates to the New button in a document library. So you should check that out! This is what I like about the new Microsoft, they keep improving the product. (Sorry, only read the comment, not th whole thread)

@Petra Van Horen I understand that, as this is what the blog post explains and I mentioned it in my own comment. I think it's great for documents that you need to repeatedly create that will stay inside the Sharepoint folder. On the other hand, it's not very useful in the sense of an Intranet, where I'd like people to be able to go to retrieve things like Reimbursement and insurance forms. I can't make them into PDFs because they're excel spreadsheets with dropdowns. But I don't want someone overwriting my original blank form. At this point the most immediate solution I can think of, and hoping is possible, is to make the file only available through download to a user's system as opposed to their being able to open and edit it in the Sharepoint environment.

one way to do that is to create a separate document library for your templates, then in the Content Type Hub site, create Content Types that link to the Templates, then push the Content Types out, then in specific doc libraries, add the appropriate CTs, When someone clicks on the New button, they will be able to create a file based on your template. This functionality has existed for over 10 years, the new announcements should provide some more options and flexibility.

Hello, with the modern library, when a user is uploading a file to a library with multiple content types, he is no longer prompted with the properties window for metadata and content type value selection while uploading the file. Will this be available?

I agree it would be preferable to have a central templates area and allow users to select a URL to assign pre-existing template. We don't really want to have to repeatedly upload copies of the same template just to make it available in multiple libraries.

Should add, I can't paste a SharePoint Online link into Library Settings > (Content Type name) > Advanced Settings > Document Template where it says "template.dotx". Neither can I navigate to a SharePoint Online library in the file picker dialog that pops up after I select "+New... Add Template".

Dear all,
This feature is quite cool, but I have some additional points on it:
- This solution is not supporting the Classic Experience and when you switch to, you retrieve the standard New button options
- I tried to load a couple of templates (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and without any specific reason one of the files are not into the list and can't be retrieve by the "Edit New button" option
I found the storage place of the template files using the Classic Experience and IE11 opening the library with "Open with Explorer". The files are placed into the subfolder (hidden folder by default) names "Forms".
But when I deleted the templates from the "Forms" folder the items into the new button were not removed, and the Edit New Menu continue to show it into the available template items.
So how can we remove an orphaned item ?
It was only a 5 minutes test and I have yet some issues
Fab

@Fabrice Romelard there are no plans to bring this (or any other updates) to classic - modern is our vehicle to delvier new capabilities.

@Keren Hopkins we also have announced new central CT/template management capabilities to be released in the next year.

@Nouha Mehio we are working to fix the prompting for required metadata soon

@Erin o'Rourke and @Petra Van Horen thanks! Yes, we are working on extending this for more flexible ways to publish, use and reuse a template across multipole environements and into local machine, Office etc.

Is there any way to disable the feature on the new and upload menu? Suppose I have already created the templates, and don't want contributors to be able to add new templates. Or at least a permission level required for adding templates?

Has anyone found out how to do this? So basically: make a nice page with company templates in a visual way (present them as tiles or so) > people click > program opens > make something > store somewhere.

When using this feature, new documents seem to be opening in Word Online. I can't seem to find a way to ensure they open in Word 2016. I have Open Documents in Client Applications by Default in Site collection features andOpening Documents in the Browser setting in the Document Advanced Settings to Open in the client application.

Has anyone experienced the following where newly document created from a specified template, automatically has a checkout status and authors have to manually go to document library level and check in the newly created document? Otherwise, it seems like the document remains hidden for other people.

Can anyone advise where these new templates are actually stored? They dont seem to be visible in the /forms URL under the library, but when you edit one through the new UI, it reports as being there through its file location?

I want to rename a file that was loaded as a template. I have edited it in the new UI, and used Save As with the new name, but this doesn't; show up.

I suspect the only approach at the moment is to delete the new template, and then add one with the modified name? = No. I tried this after having tried the Edit and Save as above, and on adding the new template, got a "this document exists, do you want to replace it warning", to which I responded replace. The new template appears to upload correctly, but never appears in the +New list, or when you edit the +New list.

So it seems, as with so many of these changes, it is not ready for prime time, but cant be turned off and cant be fixed if you dont do it perfectly the first time. It is increasing getting very difficult to justify to the executive (and more so to savvy end users) why we use microsoft products......

The templates are stored in a hidden folder under the document library. If you map your SharePoint site to a local drive letter (or open in Explorer) you can see the Forms filder under the document library. Templates uploaded using the new feature are stored in the Site/Library/Forms folder, whereas Content Type templates are contained in their own sub-folders under the Forms folder. I don't believe adding a template directly to that Forms folder would add it to the list of available templates but you could edit the template directly from the folder, if desired.

I have only just started playing with this new file template feature and it works well and is easy to manage. However, the main (very frustrating) thing is that documents created from a content type template can open directly in the native application (like Word) but those uploaded using the +Add Template feature only open in the Online app, regardless of the Library Settings to open in the client app. I have created a template document accessed by both a new Content Type and as uploaded by the +Add Template feature and the Content Type opens in Word and the Template opens in Word Online, despite both pointing to the same template file in the hidden Forms folder. This is mentioned earlier in this thread and I just wanted to add my concern about what would seem to be an easily fixed issue.

@Chris McNulty What do we do if we have lots of forms that we want templates for??

Ideally I want the list to only show the Excursion planning templates when the staff member is in the Excursion folder.

When a staff member is in the Enrolments folder then they would see the enrolments templates.

All I really need is a way to protect a document that forces staff to Save a Copy online into the folder online. From what I can the current protection options will force people to download it and open in the desktop version.

Is there any progresss on being able to work with this in any kind of production ready context:?

- Being able to access the templates that are added or uploaded in the /Forms hidden folder to remove redundant files or rename them.

- Dealing with cases where the Add or Uploaded runs into an error but leaves copy of the file in the /Forms folder and doesn't complete the process of creating the menu item to enable you to maintain it.

@Chris McNulty Hi Chris. I've come across an issue with this feature. When using templates created in this manner, the documents created from them don't seem to use the document library column default values, only the column default values by folder location. Is this a known issue?